Xbox Live bites into cutesy puzzle action the hungriest game character since Pac-Man

Pros

Cons

Eets: Chowdown lays its influences right out on the table: it%26rsquo;s an action-puzzle game in which the blobby white title character is the living embodiment of metabolism: he never sits still, constantly moves forward, and tends to bite into anything that fits into his cavernous little mouth. Not unlike a certain round, yellow maze-muncher...

However, Eets isn%26rsquo;t forever trapped in simple, neon-hued mazes: he stumbles around traditional platform fantasy lands filled with levitating land masses and lethal obstacles. Not that Eets really cares: this plucky little munchaholic is happy to vault right off the edge of a precipice or march directly into the clutches of a deadly cyborg. Thus, it falls to you to guide little Eets safely through to each level's goal %26ndash; a play mechanic which hearkens immediately back to classics like the Lemmings games or (to a lesser extent) Sega%26rsquo;s mice-and-cat puzzler Chu Chu Rocket.

Exactly how you do this is where Eets: Chowdown begins to show off its own identity. Basically, you adjust Eets' path by adding new hazards to his environment, which eventually turns the whole level into a sort of Rube Goldberg-type meta-device that puts Eets where you want him. It's similar to yet another acclaimed puzzle series, The Incredible Machine, but with a more organic feel.

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Genre

Family

Description

A clever puzzle game starring a hyperactive little blob and a fantasy world more dangerous than East St. Louis - but quite a bit more colorful.